Thursday, July 30, 2009

Can Do Attitude

Our house was like a frickin' Birdseye food processing plant today. Fortunately, it was only a delightful 99 degrees instead of the dreadful forecasted 102. In fact the heat wasn't so bad at all. I just pretended that heat and humidity were a vacation in the Caribbean...a vacation where those Commies in Cuba kidnap you and force you to work in the kitchen for twelve hour shifts.

Actually, I was canning because this is a Bean Year. Canning beans always keeps the cupboards full for a couple of years so I don't have to do it annually. This year I planted an extra row knowing I was going to can. Not sure why I did that - one 25 foot row is plenty for all my bean needs. Two full rows is enough to feed an army, and a Communist army at that!

So this morning I started by picking beans. When I had filled the sink I knew I had enough. Those aren't floating beans; that sink is packed full!



So I set to work snipping with my little helpers for about 90 seconds and then I had to banish them from the kitchen.





After that I worked solo until my hands became arthritic and then I made Mac do a bowl. My goal was to do one canner full, but after filling 20 jars, I still had a whole bowl left.



So I did another 10 jars as well. That's 60 cups of beans! Not to mention I gave a grocery bag full to the neighbor and I had only picked 2/3's of the beans. Hello methane gas production! We celebrated our bounty by having fresh beans for dinner!

There will be no more bean canning this year even though we still have tons of beans. Fortunately, Farmer Google seems to think my Kentucky bush beans will do just fine as shell beans. I have never done shell beans, so this is quite exciting. It's like I am on vacation and I won the lottery, too!

Also on the day's list of activities: processing 14 pounds of blueberries.



I made one batch of jam, and would have made another, but trolls ate the extra bag of sugar that I thought was in the pantry. That always seems to happen to me when making jam. I did get a gallon on cookie sheets in the freezer.

Despite what I say, mostly I really like canning. It makes me feel like Martha Stewart and Laura Ingalls Wilder all rolled into one. Although, there is a little part of me that feels like I am just few months away from killing my whole family with botulism.

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